Hurricane Creek Mine Disaster - Mine Conditions

Mine Conditions

The disaster occurred in shafts 15 and 16 of a "truck mine" owned by Charles and Stanley Finley, which had opened the previous March on leased land, although their company had been mining in the area for ten years. The small operation involved about 170 employees, who were not members of United Mine Workers. 34 infractions had been reported in its first three months of operation, but they had been fixed, and the mine had been shut down for 3 days in June due to safety concerns.

The Bureau of Mines had declared the mine an "imminent danger" due to blasting safety hazards in November 1970 but allowed the mine to continue operation. The hazards, which included excess accumulation of coal dust and electrical spark hazards, were discovered on November 19 and ordered to be cleaned up by December 22, but the agency was short of inspectors and could not reinspect on that date, as was required by law. The understaffed agency needed about 750 inspectors, but only had 499 at the time of the disaster.

The conditions would have allowed the bureau to declare the mine "excessively hazardous" and conduct inspections every 10 days, but they chose not to do so. The mine owners had been blamed by inspectors for the crushing death of a worker on November 9, saying the owners had failed to make required repairs to the underground tractor involved in the accident.

This lack of enforcement of the new mining safety law was part of a wider problem protested by members of Congress, and union miners had gone on strike that summer to protest the lack of enforcement. The understaffed agency had, at the time of the Hurricane Creek disaster, failed to issue a single fine despite citing thousands of safety violations at dozens of coal mines.